Lotame Learnings Archive

Image by Stuck in Customs via Flickr As of today, I’ll be leaving the Lotame family to pursue a new endeavor called Spinback.com. Like all hard decisions, this one was not easy but here’s the story: When I first started Lotame I was in the midst of building a business called TheCampusAtlas.com with three of my engineering buddies from school. But through a coincidental encounter …

Doug Weaver wrote a great piece today titled The New Oreo, Part 3: The Audience Layer. “Anyone mildly plugged into digital advertising in 2010 can’t possibly ignore the noise and energy around audience buying. … There are many people in our industry who can go a lot deeper on this topic than I…” I’ll attempt to take it a bit “deeper” but will do so …

When things get so complicated the best thing you can do is go back to the basics. In today’s world of online advertising, the “basics” are changing so it’s important to understand what those changes are and how they affect a marketer’s business. I wrote a piece that was featured in today’s iMedia Connection that discusses this very point. Excerpt from the article: We are …

The online advertising industry at large is sprinting towards maximizing efficiency. Overall, the working theory is that smart aggregation and assembly of various technology providers will create a unique solution for display advertising, and one that combines audience targeting, procurement, arbitrage and media trade. However, if, as Randall Rothenberg, CEO of IAB, states: “technology succeeds in driving the cost of reaching the perfect audience down …

The world will never be the same. Our society used to build machines and parts, in factories and in assembly lines. Today, our society builds computer programs and data bases, on laptops and in many cases, from anywhere around the world. People and businesses are becoming more efficient. They are working smarter, not harder, because they are beginning to leverage the most valuable employee of …

With all of the latest advances in digital media, we are still in the infancy stage when it comes to data intelligence and informative decision making. Consider what is currently happening in the display advertising space. Data and media are continuing to diverge as two separate commodities. On one hand there are data exchanges making cookie files or user information available for purchase. On the …

I created this video a while back for one of my college classes. It’s amazing how far an industry has come in such a short period of time. Even crazier to think that it’s only getting started. (Need to turn up the volume)

(This post can also be found on the Lotame Learnings Blog) A recent study came out by Knowledge Networks titled: “Internet users turn to social media to seek one another, not brands or products.” Without even looking at the numbers, I think it’s safe to bet that it is in fact true that “Internet users turn to social media to seek one another, not brands …

Data is King. If you don’t believe me, consider this: Rental car companies and insurers are refusing service to people with poor credit scores because data mining tells them that credit scores correlate with a higher likelihood of having an accident. Nowadays when a flight is canceled, airlines will skip over their frequent fliers and give the next open seat to the mine-identified customer whose …

(Disclaimer: I currently work for Lotame Solutions). Let’s face it, the “Social Media” buzz word has been used a bit much these days doing two things: Validating its importance and relevance in an evolving communications landscape. As the usage statistics for these social sites and platforms continue to grow, the constant referencing of the term “social media” or “social web” will only continue to rise …

I'm the Co-Founder and CEO of Troops, a venture-backed business that is building artificial intelligence for work. I am also the Co-Founder and President of TULA, a private equity backed health and beauty business that has developed the world's first line of probiotic skincare products.

Before that, I was a Co-Founder of Spinback (acquired by Buddy Media in May 2011, then acquired by Salesforce in June 2012).

On the side, I volunteer as a member of National Ski Patrol. In between I occasionally write words (see Forbes), crank tunes, and every now and again, hit up the globe for some traveling.

Twitter

RT @darrenrovell: Tried out for Astros.
Told “Don’t come back.”
Came back anyway.
Given a deal for $15K.
Entering 8th year in league.…2 days ago